Author Moving To Connecticut

RICHMOND, Va. — Patricia Cornwell, who found inspiration for her best-selling murder mysteries in Richmond, is moving to Connecticut.

Cornwell, 45, said she will maintain some connections to Virginia but she ``simply found it better for me to live closer to New York.''

The move comes as Cornwell is working on a nonfiction book that she claims will prove that turn-of-the-century painter Walter Richard Sickert was the infamous London serial killer Jack the Ripper. Sickert has been ruled out as the Ripper by many experts.

Eleven of Cornwell's 14 novels have been about fictional Virginia chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Her first crime novel, ``Postmortem,'' was published in 1989. Her most recent book is ``Isle of Dogs.''

Cornwell has contributed to Republican political campaigns and helped establish Richmond as a national center of crime-solving and forensic science. Her $1.5 million gift helped start the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine.